After several weeks spent among ghoulish haunts, a Cthulhu-haunted island, and nightmare dimensions, I thought a trip to ancient Britain — the sun-dappled forests of the High Weald and the rolling downs of the Vale of Kent — was needed. Yes, I’ve visited previously in reviews of Henry Treece’s The Great Captains and David Drake’s The Dragonlord, and Keith Taylor’s Bard (1981) is a return to post-Roman Britain in the days of Arthur and Saxon and Jutish invaders. Bard is one of those books that my dad…
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About a month ago, I wrote an enthusiastic review of Haven — The Free City, a complete fantasy city designed and published by now-defunct Gamelords way back in 1984. One of the things I mentioned is that detailed, usable, interesting city settings are relatively rare. I thought I’d test that theory by hunting around for a more modern urban setting and taking it for a spin. Sure enough, they were a little sparse — a lot harder to find than…
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The Sacred Band Janet Morris and Chris Morris Perseid Press (547 pages, June 2011, $24.95) All three hundred of the Sacred Band of Thebes fought at Chaeronea in August of 338 BCE, and two-hundred fifty-four skeletons lie buried there today under a granite lion. Some still argue about the fate of the forty-six whose skeletons were not recovered. Plutarch says that they died together, and Philip of Macedon wept to see it. Another, later, view is that the remainder surrendered, were…
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By Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe This is an excerpt from the novel Sword Sisters by Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe, presented by Black Gate magazine. It appears with the permission of Rogue Blades Entertainment, Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe, and may not be reproduced in whole or in part. All rights reserved. Copyright 2013 by Reel Heroine, LLC. PROLOGUE The origin of the Demons remains a mystery; even they don’t seem to know. But one day, over a millennium ago, they found their…
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Black Gate is very pleased to offer our readers an exclusive excerpt from Swords Sisters, the new novel of heroic fantasy from Tara Cardinal and Alex Bledsoe. Cast aside by her mother, tormented (literally) by her father, feared by humans and despised by most of her own kind, Aella is determined not to care. Not to care what they think, not to care if they like her, not to care about anything or anyone. Just so long as no one tries…
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Novelist and columnist Charles R. Rutledge weighed in on John C. Hocking’s newest Archivist tale last month, saying: Do you like sword and sorcery? The real stuff, I mean, where sorcery is something dark and dangerous and people get hurt when they fight with sharp edged weapons? Something that’s a little exotic and makes you think of Robert E. Howard and Fritz Leiber, but still is very much its own thing? Then boy have I got a story for you. “Vestments…
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We enjoy discussing sword & sorcery here at Black Gate. And we love to give away free stuff. So this week, we decided to combine our two favorite hobbies. Specifically, we want to hear about your favorite sword & sorcery tale — novel or short story — and we want to give you one of five copies of Howard Andrew Jones’s exciting new Pathfinder Tales novel, Stalking the Beast, the follow-up to his hit Pathfinder release Plague of Shadows, All five copies were provided by the fine folks at Paizo…
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I caught Alex Bledsoe reading from Wisp of a Thing at a small Chicago convention earlier this year, and was immediately riveted. Seriously, if you get the chance, ask Alex to come to your house and read the first chapter. Or just stop him when you run into him at the mall, and impose on him to read a few pages. You won’t regret it (though you may have to buy him lunch). The first volume in the series, The Hum…
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We published three stories from John R. Fultz’s baroque and fascinating sword & sorcery Zang Cycle in the print version of Black Gate: “Oblivion Is the Sweetest Wine,” featuring the famous thief Taizo and his daring heist in spider-haunted Ghoth (BG 12); “Return of the Quill,” in which Artifice’s long-simmering plan to bring revolution to the city of Narr finally unfolds (BG 13); and the prequel story “The Vintages of Dream” (BG 15). Next, John took us back in time to Artifice’s first year as a member of the travelling Glimmer Faire in “When…
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Last week I started talking about how we put the sorcery into sword and sorcery novels. People who don’t read fantasy are often mistaken about how its supernatural tropes actually work. In part, they feel that you can’t have any real tension or conflict because there’s magic and magic solves everything. You know, you just wave the magic wand and the problem goes away.* To which I say, “Tell that to the wicked Witch of the West.” Or Harry Potter….
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